It’s important to have views, not to be everybody’s best friend... One of the cool things about Muhammad Ali or David Bowie is that they always stood for stuff; it wasn’t uncool to believe in something and follow it through. | | | | | Michael Kiwanuka. (Anna Hanks) | | | | |  | “It’s important to have views, not to be everybody’s best friend... One of the cool things about Muhammad Ali or David Bowie is that they always stood for stuff; it wasn’t uncool to believe in something and follow it through.”
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| | rantnrave:// Beneath the ongoing battles over how songwriters are credited and paid and how their publishing rights are legally codified lies something else that doesn't often get talked about: We often don't know, or can't agree on, who wrote any given song. Is the "GHOSTBUSTERS" theme song -- most recently recorded by FALL OUT BOY and MISSY ELLIOTT -- solely the compositional work of RAY PARKER JR., who had the original hit? Or do HUEY LEWIS and CHRIS HAYES deserve part of the credit for writing "I WANT A NEW DRUG," which sounds a bit similar and was used as a temp track in the original movie before the producers found PARKER -- and whose plagiarism lawsuit was quietly settled out of court? And what about ROBIN SCOTT, aka M, who preceded both of them with "POP MUZIK"? And does any of that matter? MIKE "DJ" PIZZO traces the song's tangled history and concludes that what made the song great "was not the similarities to 'I WANT A NEW DRUG,' but what PARKER did with it, whether it was borrowed or not." Music publishers and copyright judges should engrave that sentence on their office walls. And then there's a song like "I'M LOVIN' IT," known as both a JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE single and, more famously, a MCDONALD's jingle. The question on that one, explored here by MARC HOGAN, is literally who wrote it? For a tune whose best-known version is 60 seconds long, there are a surprising number of claimants. When someone eventually does the data-entry for that one in the music blockchain, whose names will be entered?... Is our taste for consonance in music the result of nature or nurture? (And, as an addendum, here's the centuries-old racist subtext to that question.)... It's FRIDAY and that means new music from STEVEN TYLER, MICHAEL KIWANUKA, DREEZY, CLAMS CASINO, JACK & AMANDA PALMER, OMAR RODRIGUEZ-LOPEZ, BLU & NOTTZ, 21 SAVAGE & METRO BOOMIN, AARON NEVILLE, JEFF BECK, GARY WILSON, DAVID NAIL and, of course, the "GHOSTBUSTERS" soundtrack. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | The Atlantic |
| Scientists have claimed that humans have an innate, universal preference for some chords over others-but a study of remote villagers suggests otherwise. | | |
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 | Cuepoint |
| Through ugly lawsuits and curious covers, Ray Parker Jr. finds a way to stay paid. | | |
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 | MTV News |
| The singer, poet, and Chance the Rapper collaborator's debut album speaks in black codes. | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
| As N.A.A.F.I. has grown from a misfit warehouse-party crew into perhaps the most visible group in Mexico’s underground-club-music scene, it has become a flash point for the city’s changing image abroad. Its members represent Mexico City’s growing cosmopolitan status, a role they embrace and resist in equal measure. | | |
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 | Variety |
| How do you reinvent music television for a generation that grew up not watching MTV, but YouTube, Vine and Snapchat? That's a question that Vevo has been trying to answer ever since former BBC and Intel Media executive Erik Huggers took over the leadership of the major-label-owned music video platform a little over a year ago. | | |
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 | Rolling Stone |
| Following death of song's co-creator Steve Young, a look at how a niche DJ record infiltrated the mainstream. | | |
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 | Thump |
| An illustrated break-down of male and female musicians on 24 different line-ups. | | |
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 | FiveThirtyEight |
| A small black child holds a "Fuck Donald Trump!" poster as sirens ring out and a police helicopter patrols overhead. The rapper YG appears, both middle fingers raised, and emphatically raps"Fuck Donald Trump / Fuck Donald Trump" over and over again. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| The idea of the artist as mogul is no longer a novel concept. But where that has meant clothing lines, lifestyle brands or other endorsements, some acts are turning their attention to the traditional music management structure, trading commission-based representatives for salaried employees. | | |
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 | The New York Observer |
| There is a long joke about a congressmen and a sheep. Maybe you've heard it. Well, Hootie & the Blowfish are my sheep. And despite the continual toll my involvement with this talented and supremely well-intended band has taken on my hard-earned artistic and journalistic credibility, I love my sheep. | | |
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| | | i ain't 'fraid of no ghosts |
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 | GQ |
| Guitars. Booze. Axl AND Slash. It’s 2016 and the biggest, baddest rock band of the ‘80s is back, and GQ’s Drew Magary is on the trail with GNR’s still-kicking army of ready-to-rage fans. | | |
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 | Complete Music Update |
| So welcome to F*** Google Day, a popular event in the music community, not as big as the Grammys Weekend, but up there with Record Store Day. | | |
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 | Song Exploder |
| Claire Boucher takes apart the Grimes song "Kill V. Maim," and tell the story of how it was made. | | |
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| Thump |
| Making it in a communist-run nation where sites like Facebook and Soundcloud are blocked isn't easy, but these guys aren't taking no for an answer. | | |
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 | Pitchfork |
| WEA, Warner Music's distribution and marketing arm, has shut down the accounts of "about a hundred" retailers that did less than $10,000 in business with the company last year, a WEA source has confirmed to Pitchfork. The move put into effect an existing policy requiring a $10,000 minimum annual order for stores holding direct accounts with WEA. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| A firm that put “Happy Birthday” into the public domain now wants to rescind copyright protection for “We Shall Overcome” and “This Land Is Your Land.” | | |
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 | KCRW |
| UK soul singer Michael Kiwanuka took some time after the release of his acclaimed debut to figure out what he really wanted to say next. He partnered with producer Danger Mouse to bring to create Love and Hate and you can hear his growth as an artist as he explores his heritage and issues like race and spirituality. | | |
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| Pitchfork |
| The full story behind the McDonald’s ditty is part David and Goliath, part King Midas, and part “Mad Men,” with plenty that foreshadows both the 21st-century music industry and the culture beyond it. | | |
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| Billboard |
| As a "chubby" teen playing in a family band, Meghan Trainor never dreamed of scoring four top 10 singles of her own and a best new artist Gramy. Now, two years into sudden stardom, she's redefining "maturity" for young female stars (less skin, more trumpet playing) and creating an approachable role model for girls. | | |
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| MTV News |
| White rappers. How many of us love them? To be a white rapper is a tough row to hoe in an industry with a complex overlay of cultural, social, and capitalist demands. Questions get raised: Are you real enough? Does your background matter? | | |
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 | from "Love & Hate," out today on Interscope |
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| © Copyright 2016, The REDEF Group |
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